IBM CEO Ginni Rometty also reiterated the company's long-term goal of operating EPS of at least $20 in 2015.

"Given the uncertain demand environment, IBM's performance shined," Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White said in a note Wednesday. "We continue to believe that IBM represents an attractive tech play in a muted IT spending environment with high exposure to recurring revenue from businesses such as software and services."

White, who has a "buy" rating on IBM, raised his price target to $251 from $245. The analyst also hiked his first-quarter revenue estimate to $24.42 billion from $24.27 billion and his earnings estimate to $3.05 a share from $3. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for first-quarter revenue of $24.67 billion and earnings of $3.06 a share.

Societe Generale upgraded IBM from "sell" to "hold" and raised its target price to $201 from $188.

In a note released Wednesday, Societe Generale analyst Richard Nguyen pointed to IBM's better-than-expected guidance, the success of its new mainframe offerings and the company's potential for software and services growth.

"With an improving demand environment expected for the second half of 2013 , notably in Europe, IBM should be able to reverse its revenue growth trajectory which has declined over the last three quarters," he wrote.